Two Cheers for the Somali Pirates?

by Liberty and Power

Johann Hari's You Are Being Lied to About Pirates provides a salutary corrective to government propaganda on this subject.

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Crawdad - 4/12/2009

I find myself at a loss. I don't understand how anyone could support or excuse piracy of this type. No doubt, if Hari's article has its facts right about European countries using Somalia's troubles as cover for dumping wastes or other such practices, they should be condemned and held accountable.

Don't see how that justifies pirates seizing private ships engaged in, as far as I can tell, free market activities, ie. moving goods through international waters as part of international trade. None of the ships hijacked, to my knowledge, were doing business with or even had stop overs in Somalia so any connection with the aforementioned dumping would be tenuous at best. These are not government owned ships or warships being seized after all. The Maersk Alabama, in fact, was a privately held ship loaded with humanitarian supplies.

The knee jerk support of the "little guy" often leads to poor reasoning and conclusions. In this case it's like supporting the mafia because you hate government. Are we supporters of free trade or not? And does that not include the right to conduct such trade unmolested by either governmental or private pirates?

William Stepp - 4/12/2009

The latest Big Lie about the Somali pirates is by Robert Kaplan in today's New York Times. He blames it on anarchy in Somalia.